I saw Stephen Hawking once. It was late at night along one of Cambridge’s cobble-stoned streets in front of the colleges. He was in his chair waiting for his equipped minivan to come along and pick him up. Cambridge is a star in The Theory of Everything. The narrow streets, the River Cam, the iconic shot of King’s College and the famous bridges connecting the colleges to the ‘backs’ are all here. The atmosphere and dream-like sense of place director James Marsh achieves is an absolute joy to watch and is a large part of why The Theory of Everything is one of the best films of the year. It also helps that the year’s best actor, Eddie Redmayne (2011's My Week with Marilyn), plays Stephen Hawking beginning as a clumsy doctoral candidate through his metamorphosis into a wheelchair-bound genius unable to talk and easily express the groundbreaking ideas swarming around his brain. There is little suspense observing Hawking’s degeneration because we all know how it turns out since Hawking is only one of a very few physicists most people in the world can name. Yet, watching a young man in love in the prime of his physical and academic life lose his faculties one by one is heartbreaking. Redmayne pulls off an astonishing feat here and gives a performance which will be remembered for years to come.

His partner, Felicity Jones (2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2), playing Hawking’s wife, Jane, is also remarkable for believably portraying a character around 19 or 20 well into middle age. Even though she raised her hand and signed up for it, Jane has it rough. Responsible for all of Stephen’s care and feeding and adding three children on top of the work load is the main reason the tone in The Theory of Everything shifts roughly halfway through from dramatic fancy to dramatic realism.

The first half of The Theory of Everything is the best movie of the year. Remember the first five minutes of Pixar’s Up? That short span was a phenomenal short film in itself. Ditto for The Theory of Everything. However, I understand the magic could not last forever even though I wanted it to. As Hawking deteriorates, Marsh brings the audience back down from the clouds and the movie gets down to its more unpleasant business of mundane details and frustrations. New characters arrive including an overly nice church choir leader, Jonathan (Charlie Cox), who Jane latches onto and a very accommodating nurse maid for Stephen, Elaine (Maxine Peake).

Stephen’s and Jane’s relationship, a pure and fascinating pair, becomes strained and hits rough patches and this is years after his immobility strikes. Scenes chronicling these episodes change the film and veer toward the marital melodrama area; a territory successfully avoided until then. Most of us are only aware of Stephen Hawking as the man incapacitated by motor neuron disease confined to a wheelchair. That he used to be able to walk, talk, and awkwardly dance is new and the fact that he fathered three children is certainly not a well known element of his life.

However, The Theory of Everything is not about astrophysics, voluntary muscle movements, or fame; it is about a young couple who had their entire lives in front of them at 21 and decided to continue their lives together anyways after learning of Stephen's impending decline. No nonsense Jane forces Stephen to get up, move, and continue his work. It is her motivation and prodding which most readily comes across to the audience.

James Marsh takes us through 25 years of Stephen and Jane Hawking's time together. We witness Stephen's intellectual ascent at the same time as his physical descent. Their marriage is neither left on a pedestal as an example to all nor is it sensationalized when it ventures into new territories. Stephen Hawking is not elevated to perfect hero status; we get his warts and all. James Marsh, who won an Oscar for the documentary Man on Wire, has found a unique way to study an individual famous for his disease. We look through the prism of his wife and marriage to find the man. We come away with an amazing story and place and above all, a spectacular film.